Asus is whipping up a custom Noctua Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card, and it’s giving us ’80s executive office suite energy. The custom GeForce GPU is in keeping with the gaming PC part maker’s usual vibe, but the mocha colour scheme transforms its chonky shroud into a statement piece.
The GPU scene is dominated by shades of grey, and the best graphics card contenders are rarely pretty. While RGB lighting adds a rainbow splash to otherwise drab shrouds, most versions of the RTX 4080 offer up the same brutalist design that almost resembles scaffolding.
Announced at CES 2023, Asus’ Noctua-infused RTX 4080 is a bit like visual marmite for the eyes. Some enthusiasts can’t get enough of the manufacturer’s brown and beige blend, but others will consider it an aesthetic nightmare. If you’re old enough to remember microcomputers like the Atari 800, this custom card’s colour chart will feel all too familiar, as it looks like it belongs in a leather-clad machine surrounded by hardback books.
Naturally, Noctua coolers boast more than a unique flair, as the card’s NF-A12x25 fans promise to curb peak temps at 63° Celsius while keeping noise on the down low. According to Asus, pairing the setup with its own vapour chamber results in the “quietest air-cooled RTX 4080 on the market” – a bold claim that we’ll need to put to the test.
In terms of specs, the Noctua Edition RTX 4080 is an overclocked card, so it’s on par with the company’s TUF Gaming OC variant. We’re still waiting for an ETA and MSRP, but it’ll more than likely cost more than the Founder’s Edition featured in our Nvidia RTX 4080 review.
If you’re looking to splash out on a new GeForce card, but don’t want to spend over $1,000, you might want to consider the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, as it wields similar DLSS 3 abilities for less than its Lovelace sibling.
